Damn it, Wake Me Up

Tony and Mary Calley had a nine year marriage their friends and neighbors envied. They seemed like the perfect couple, living in the perfect million-dollar house with the perfect son. Tony owned a very successful investment firm and Mary was a main figure in the town’s tennis and parties high- society set. To everyone that knew them, the Calleys were the symbol of wealth and the receivers of the “American Dream”. Yes, they had a life that most of the world would think could never become unraveled. But it did! Tony was a bigtime gambler. He couldn’t hold onto the millions that came in the front door of Burns and Calley Investment. He would bet thousands, or even hundreds of thousands on a single race every day, either from his bookie and or his laptop. He had three mortgages on his house Mary knew nothing about, as he bought the house in his name only, “to use as a work write-off”. She believed him until her credit cards started getting rejected and their bank president contacted her about an overdraft. After confronting Tony on the shortage in their account, he told her it must be a mistake and took care of it by illegally getting a work loan without his partner’s okay. While they were putting on their “we’re very rich show” for the rest of Nashville, they were struggling to pay their bills. Mary threatened Tony with divorce and he promised to stop betting. His secretary retired and in his hunt to replace her, he ends hiring probably the world’s most beautiful redhead. Soon, his financial woes become minor as he starts a relationship with his new girl Friday. He starts working later and later as they use the office as their personal “playpen”. They decide they have to eliminate Mary, and at the same time eliminate all his bills. Tony increases Mary’s life insurance and they cook up a scheme to kill her, which eventually puts her in a coma. Everything seems to be following their script until an unbelievable event takes place. Does Mary have any knowledge of their plans, or even survive the coma? The answer will amaze you. The ending will knock you out. Warning: don’t try any of this at home. It may be deadly!

Author Biography

E.G. Lander was born in a tiny spec of a town in northern Minnesota called Deer River. He grew up on a fishing resort his parents owned, telling guests, almost as soon as he could talk, about his family of eight, the woods, the local Chippewa Indians, the lakes and the native game. It was there that he realized he would one day be a storyteller, a writer of what he knew and learned as a youngster. He postponed much of that to raise his own family, and build a career to launch him back into writing. He worked his way through college by writing papers for other students, then graduated with a BA in pre-law and political science. From there he joined the U.S. Marine Corps, becoming a teacher and a facilitator of MCI (the Marine Corps Institute). He got married and became a leader for a national retailer, honing his communication and writing skills with speeches and motivational leadership. But he was always dreaming of writing, especially telling stories about families and their efforts to overcome hardships. E.G. retired early to start that second career- the storytelling one. In the last four years, he has completed four manuscripts, (3 fictional and 1 non-fictional) and he’s working on a fifth one. His first work was What’s in the Rear View Mirror? a 80,000 word saga about a family in South Carolina caught up in murders from 50 years ago that haunt them even today, creating even more murders. It’s was published in May 2014. Next came a 117,000 word story called Damn It, Wake Me Up, the drama of an American family being destroyed by a husband who gambles and cheats on his wife and eventually tries to kill her. However, she doesn’t die from the “perfect murder plan” he and his mistress devise. She ends up in a coma, and that’s where the story really begins. E.G.‘s third work is a fantasy entitled The Incredible Bucky Berrot, a beautiful story about a family of birds in Australia and how Bucky changes the way all the residents in Bayberry Hills think about their laws and their enemies, as well as the possibility of God (why can’t a bird believe in God?). This colorful family and community fable was co-authored with E.G.‘s grandson (12- year- old Connor) to give a slant of assorted creatures never seen before (60,000 words).